Question Number: 19855

League Specific 9/1/2008

RE: Under 13

chloe of innisfail, qld australia asks...

We had a player tranfer from another club about five weeks ago. He was very unhappy and our club welcomed him into our team. We are a team of all 11 year olds playing in an under 12 comp he was 12. We have just been told that we are out of the finals because he transfered after a certain date and all the games he has played with us were counted as forfits, we won most of them. We have been told that this is rule 22, please explain. We were coming third in the ladder now we are sixth and out of the final.

Answer provided by Referee Richard Dawson

Midseason transfer of a player from one team to another is likely forbidden in your association bylaws to prevent cherry picking good players to improve the roster. If he was already on a competitors team or from a different league such things might factor into the decision, however, while there maybe underlying reasons you are unaware of, the restrictive bylaws should be publicly available to all to prevent such a transgression. The by- laws are the INTERNAL workings of your league policy, rule 22 does not have anything to do with the 17 LAWS OF THE GAME by FIFA
U-12 means that at least at the start of a certain date the player was 11 not 12 to BEGIN the season. Some leagues play into the following year so a player could turn 12 and still be on the u-12 team.
Nothing we can say here will change what your association standards are. A referee has nothing to do with ineligible players it is STRICTLY a league thing. Sounds like you got caught up in the paperwork of political expediency.
Cheers

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

Rule 22 undoubtably refers to your local association eligibility rules. The Laws of the Game are numbered 1 to 17.